Dreading Monday?

That dreading-Monday feeling can sink in on Sunday even before the kickoff on the afternoon NFL game. I don’t have to log in to the work email address without beginning to think of all I need to get done the next day (isn’t there something I’m forgetting?) and the anxiety will creep up, ruining a perfectly lovely Sunday. 

I’ve never really articulated it to myself until my elder son, Will, started talking about how he gets a little worked up on Sundays, thinking about his job the next day (and just that he has a job in this market is much to be thankful for). 

Suddenly I heard myself, sounding like a typical dad, giving him advice: “There are all sorts of things you can do.” 

“Like what?”

“Let me write ‘em down.”

And I did. I called it The List. It’s full of those sometimes silly, sometimes profound things I do to stop worrying and enjoy myself. “Send an email to someone you haven’t heard from in a long time…clean the top of the refrigerator…read a psalm…go outside with a book and no watch…”

At any rate, I sent The List to him. No, I’m not going to share all of it with you. It’s our list. But his reaction to it was priceless: “Dad, you know I’ve never even THOUGHT of cleaning the top of the refrigerator.”

Take one from the old man.  

Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.